CANANDAIGUA — Good news for the local job market came Thursday with the announcement that a manufacturing operation will move from China to the Smart System Technology and Commercialization Center (STC) in Canandaigua.

A partnership between Xerox Corp. and the State University of New York College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering’s STC is expected to create and retain up to 100 high-tech jobs over the next five years, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in a release. Positions will include researchers, engineers and technicians who will be employed by both organizations.

Paul Tolley, STC’s director and vice president for Disruptive Technologies, stated that the addition of a world-class technology company such as Xerox “further strengthens the high-tech capabilities and public-private partnership” key to the workings of STC.

Under the plan, Xerox will relocate capital equipment used in the manufacturing of advanced document scanning technologies — previously in China — to a 3,300-square-foot cleanroom at STC. In addition, Xerox is negotiating a five-year contract agreement with STC to purchase optical scanners once the production line is successfully transferred to the Canandaigua site.

Cuomo said the state will invest $750,000 in the project to help pay for fitting equipment and make physical changes to the cleanroom in order to accommodate the new equipment and personnel.

“No private companies will receive state funding as a result of the partnership,” Cuomo said.

It is the second big announcement this week for STC. On Tuesday, Cuomo said that Dynamax Imaging plans to add up to 50 high-tech positions over the next year at the site in Canandaigua.

“This growth is being driven by opportunities to ‘reshore’ existing overseas operations by leveraging access,” Cuomo stated, to what he called “unmatched infrastructure supporting nanotechnology research, development and commercialization.”

Brian Young, director of Ontario County Workforce Development, said a workforce program helped Dynamax begin filling those jobs earlier this year— skills that are hard to find. Filling the positions involved on-the-job training that matched skilled employees with those needing to upgrade skills, Young said. Dynamax managed to hire good candidates and the on-the-job training was great, said Young.

Those high-tech jobs will continue to be in demand, pay well and require skills different than the manufacturing jobs of the past, Young said.

The STC at 5450 Campus Drive off Route 332 is a former Xerox cleanroom facility. It then housed the former Infotonics Technology Center before being revitalized through a merger in 2010 between Infotonics and the Center of Excellence in Nanoelectronics and Nanotechnology at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at SUNY Albany.

The UAlbany CNSE is the first college in the world dedicated to education, research, development and deployment in science and engineering done at the nanoscale (that would be one to 100 nanometers — one nanometer is a billionth of a meter), according to the center’s website. The technology is used in everything from airbags to hearing aids and smart phones.

Page 2 of 2 - This so-called “smart-system technology” is growing due to demand for low-cost, low-power, small-size sensors and motors.